by Corinne Murdock | Feb 3, 2024 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Transnational organized crime is on the rise in the Valley; South American Theft Groups (SATGs) are the suspected culprits behind a string of burglaries in Scottsdale, Phoenix, Paradise Valley, Chandler, Gilbert, Peoria, and unincorporated areas of Maricopa County.
SATGs, also known as “crime tourists,” are nationals from Chile and other South American countries that exploit tourist visas in order to obtain and transport stolen goods internationally. Up until recent years, SATGs were known to operate mainly in Los Angeles and New York City.
Federal agents have offered different estimates on the emergence of SATGs. An FBI special agent told Vanity Fair in 2022 that California’s troubles with SATGs began in 2016; in that same spate of interviews, another special agent claimed that the SATG plague began in 2014 after Chile joined the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) program. Chile is the only South American country in the program.
The ESTA program automatically grants 90-day visas to South American countries’ citizens with clean background checks. These program authorizations are valid for multiple trips over a period of two years.
As agents told Vanity Fair, these SATG criminals likely have “clean” background checks because they use “fictitious documents, IDs, residency cards” to claim legal presence. As a result, SATG members generally register no criminal record.
Scottsdale Councilwoman Tammy Caputi advised in a press release last week that law enforcement agencies across the cities and towns are running surveillance operations to apprehend the SATGs including cameras, fixed and moving positions, aircraft, and K9 units.
The agencies also plan to convene for further coordination efforts on Wednesday, with the possibility of a multi-agency burglary task force.
Further, the FBI assigned an agent to coordinate response efforts to the crime trend.
In December, the FBI testified on SATGs at a congressional hearing regarding the uptick in organized retail crime. In order to address SATGs, the FBI leads task forces through its Major Theft Program (MTP).
In last week’s press release, Scottsdale Police estimated that this recent string of robberies began around last October. Police estimated at least 22 burglaries were the result of SATGs, with the latest occurring last week.
Scottsdale Police reported that it had conducted seven surveillance operations to apprehend the burglars, with an eighth planned for Tuesday night. Law enforcement also disclosed that they obtained physical evidence as well as camera footage from several of the burglaries.
Law enforcement noted that the burglaries were usually occurring Thursdays through Saturdays from 5-10 p.m. The burglars have primarily targeted homes adjacent to a wash.
One of the earliest to speak out on the burglary spree was Scottsdale City Council candidate Jan Dubauskas. On Monday, Dubauskas issued a press release warning of the import of the sudden uptick in crime.
“This is a crime spree and it’s not happening in a far-off blue city like San Francisco. It’s in our own backyard,” said Dubauskas. “Scottsdale is being targeted. We chose to live here because of the sense of safety and protection and that has been shattered.”
Dubauskas further urged the community to engage in neighborhood watches, and expressed confidence in local police’s ability to apprehend the perpetrators.
“We need to come together to protect our homes and ensure these thieves are caught and brought to justice,” said Dubauskas. “Thankfully, we have an all-star Police Department here in Scottsdale that is bringing the community in and making this a top priority. They’re some of the best in the country.”
Valley law enforcement are becoming more familiar with recognizing and catching SATGs. Around this time last year, 12 News reported on Scottsdale investigators prosecuting a crime syndicate that reportedly hit homes in Arizona, California, Texas, Nevada, and Utah in 2022.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Feb 1, 2024 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09), and Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07) were three out of less than 30 congressmen to push back against President Joe Biden’s bombing of Yemen.
Last week, the three men signed onto a bipartisan letter with 27 other members of Congress to declare that the military strikes were unauthorized, therefore unconstitutional, and that Biden required the consent of Congress to further engage.
“Article One of the Constitution is clear: Congress has the sole power to declare war and authorize U.S. military action,” stated the letter.
The congressmen argued that Biden only holds the authority to introduce U.S. forces into hostilities either after a declaration of war by Congress, after specific statutory authorization from Congress, or in a national emergency when the U.S. is under imminent attack.
Biden ordered the strikes earlier this month in response to Yemen-based Houthi militant attacks on U.S. military forces dating back to November. Biden’s letter to Congress announcing the strikes alleged that he had authority under the War Powers Resolution (WPR) of 1973.
Immediately following Biden’s letter to Congress, Biggs condemned the move as unconstitutional.
“[Biden] can’t unilaterally pull us into another war,” said Biggs. “Why does he want so many wars?”
Similarly, the congressmen contended in their letter that Biden proceeded under a selective reading of the WPR.
“The WPR of 1973 does not give blanket authority for a President to unilaterally involve U.S. military forces in a conflict if a President simply notifies Congress within 48 hours. The 48-hour reporting requirement only applies to a situation in which a President must act due to an attack or imminent attack against the United States,” read the letter.
However, the letter didn’t express any intent on applying punitive measures for the executive overreach. Rather, the letter concluded with a request for Biden to heed to their authority under the Constitution, with an offer to “debate” any war-making request by the administration.
The other members of Congress to sign onto the letter were Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna, Val Hoyle, Pramila Jayapal, Cori Bush, Jonathan Jackson, Summer Lee, Rashida Tlaib, Greg Casa, Ilhan Omar, James McGovern, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Ayanna Presley, Nydia Velazquez, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Delia Ramirez, Barbara Lee, Jamaal Bowman; and Republican Reps. Warren Davidson, Thomas Massie, Nancy Mace, Anna Paulina Luna, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Harriet Hageman.
In another statement on Tuesday following the deaths of three troops in Jordan, Gosar again declared Biden lacked the authority to bring the U.S. into a foreign conflict.
“Biden does not have the authority to take us into war with Iran without Congressional approval,” said Gosar.
Gosar further declared that Biden’s foreign policy was to blame for the three deaths.
“Biden bears full responsibility [for] the drone attack on our troops by recklessly reopening nuclear arms negotiations [with] Iran [and] giving them $6 billion [to] fund its military, refusing [to] enforce the Trump-imposed Iranian oil sanctions which has allowed Iran [to] rake in billions of profits,” said Gosar. “Biden also reversed the Trump-imposed freeze on millions of dollars that were diverted [to] Iran-sponsored terrorist activities.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jan 31, 2024 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Gov. Katie Hobbs has introduced legislation that would end the entirety of Arizona’s school choice program come 2032.
On Monday, Hobbs announced the release of the bill, part of a forthcoming package, to bring to heel and then end the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.
In the press release announcing the legislation, neither Hobbs nor Democratic leaders mentioned the provision ending the entire ESA Program: both the universal and special education components. The coalition characterized the legislation as containing accountability and transparency measures.
As justification for the legislation, the governor repeated claims of misused ESA funding that have been debunked by Arizona Department of Education (ADE) officials.
“Arizonans deserve to know their taxpayer dollars are being spent giving Arizona children the education they deserve, not on luxury car driving lessons, ski trips, and water park passes,” said Hobbs. “We must bring accountability and transparency to the ESA program.”
The bill, SB1399, was introduced by Sen. Minority Leader Mitzi Epstein (D-LD12). Under the bill, the ESA Program would end on July 1, 2032 unless continued by an act of the legislature approved by the governor.
The bill also would:
- Require educators at ESA-funded schools to have a higher education; at least three years of teaching experience; and specialized skills, knowledge, or expertise related to the subject matter of instruction
- Require fingerprinting and background checks for ESA-funded educators and tutors
- Prohibit sales of items purchased using ESA funds
- Require preapproval of transactions of $500 or more
- Require the purchase of the least-expensive version of educational goods or services
- Require ADE to disclose the legal rights waived by admission to the program
- Require ADE to estimate the funds needed for the ESA program for the upcoming fiscal year
- Implement additional performance and fiscal reporting requirements for ESA-funded schools
- Require ESA-funded schools to adhere to outside individualized education programs or Section 504 plans
- Establish annual audits of ESA-funded schools
- Establish a legislative committee review of the ESA program to determine its economy and efficiency, achievements and shortcomings
Epstein also didn’t mention the bill’s total eradication of the ESA Program. Rather, the senator indicated that her issue with the ESA Program concerned its universalization.
“The unaccountable government expansion of ESA vouchers has put our state’s financial security, and our students, at risk,” said Epstein. “These commonsense safeguards will be vitally important for giving Arizona children a safe and quality education, and bring the same accountability and oversight to ESAs that we expect for any taxpayer spending.”
Similarly, House Minority Leader Lupe Contreras (D-LD22) — anticipated to introduce mirror legislation soon — said that the legislation consisted of “basic standards” for transparency and accountability.
The governor put the legislature on notice of the forthcoming legislative package earlier this month.
The day after Hobbs dropped her legislation, ADE Superintendent Tom Horne released the latest data on the ESA Program. Horne reported a projected surplus of $28 million through the 2024 fiscal year, which ends in June.
Citing the projected surplus, Horne denounced the accusations from Hobbs and Democratic lawmakers that the state’s budget woes were attributable to the ESA Program expansion.
“Whatever budget issues state lawmakers are facing this year, they have not been created by the ESA program or any other aspect of basic state aid for education,” said Horne. “The fact there is a surplus in basic state aid, including the ESA program, demonstrates our commitment to good financial stewardship.”
Matt Beienburg of the Goldwater Institute, a major proponent of the ESA Program, said that Hobbs’ proposal constituted “an all-out assault” on students and their families as well as a “government takeover” of private schools.
“Building off Gov. Hobbs’s recent proposal to rip away 50,000 ESA scholarship awards, this legislation goes even further and would terminate the entire ESA program—including for students with special needs—before thousands of these children even complete their studies,” said Beienburg. “This legislation would impose a government takeover of private school tuition rates and operational decisions, attempting to destroy private education and parental autonomy, forcing thousands of families back into a system they’ve desperately tried to escape.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jan 30, 2024 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The newly-elected chair of the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP), Gina Swoboda, revealed that GOP leadership plans to sue Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over the Elections Procedures Manual (EPM).
Swoboda dropped the news in an interview with Steve Bannon. She said Fontes’ EPM was “off the rails” and worse than the one produced by his predecessor, now-Gov. Katie Hobbs.
“The legislature’s going to drop a lawsuit this week, the AZGOP’s going to drop the lawsuit this week,” said Swoboda.
Bannon questioned why the lawsuits weren’t dropped earlier, to which Swoboda informed Bannon that the EPM was published on Dec. 30.
On top of discarding Fontes’ EPM, Swoboda revealed that the state party would attempt to get rid of unstaffed drop boxes and implement stricter requirements for signature verification.
“What we can do is get in there now, eliminate the things that are the worst of the gaps in the system: the unmanned drop boxes, the lack of any requirements for signature verification, […] and what’s in this procedure’s manual will blow off the door, so if we thought what we saw before is bad, it’s off the rails,” said Swoboda.
Prior to her election as chair of AZGOP, Swoboda was a deputy registrar for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, the AZGOP Election Integrity Committee chair, and the executive director for an organization that published voter rolls online: Voter Reference Foundation (VRF), a subsidiary of Restoration of America.
Swoboda said that she hadn’t originally planned to run for party chair until she received a call from former President Donald Trump.
Top Democratic lawyer Marc Elias referred to her selection as “a worrying choice,” citing her VRF involvement.
Swoboda rebutted that Elias was “scared” of her.
“I think Marc is scared of me and I think they actually tried to do a lot of damage over the last three days,” said Swoboda. “We need to litigate, we need to protect ourselves from lawfare, that’s how they weakened the system in 2020 and we didn’t see them coming. We know where they are.”
Despite expressing worry over Swoboda, Elias said that he didn’t feel threatened by the prospect of further litigation.
In order to engage in that lawfare against Elias and others, Swoboda said the party required more funding. Swoboda disclosed that the AZGOP was “broke” and that there were financial unknowns dating back to a year regarding the party’s profits and losses. Swoboda said that the party was “running on fumes.”
“If I can’t litigate, I can’t protect us,” said Swoboda. “We’ve got to take it to them, we can’t sit here and wait and then try to flail about when it’s too late and it’s already started. We’ve got to do it now, we’re bringing it now, but we need support to do it.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jan 30, 2024 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
House Democrats believe that Americans who think the border is mismanaged are “confused.”
Democrats in the House Homeland Security Committee issued the remarks during a press conference on Monday addressing the newly-released articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas. Committee Republicans published the draft articles on Sunday.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS-02), ranking member, indicated that DHS was handling the border correctly and operating in line with the direction of President Joe Biden. Thompson noted that the greater concern for he and his Democratic colleagues was that the impeachment efforts were the cause of lost confidence in DHS and Mayorkas.
“Democrats are real concerned that this is just one of those efforts to confuse the public that something is going wrong at the Department of Homeland Security. Our secretary works at the direction of the president,” said Thompson. “This notion that in carrying out the directions of your boss somehow is an impeachable offense is wrong.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08) also spoke at the press conference. Jeffries claimed that it was “extreme MAGA Republicans” who were misleading the American public on the state of the border. Jeffries further claimed that House Republicans produced “no evidence” that Mayorkas committed an impeachable or unconstitutional offense.
“The extreme MAGA republicans have been directed by Donald Trump not to work together to address the challenges at the border and to instead distract the American people,” said Jeffries.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY-10), another committee member, argued that Republicans caused the border crisis. Goldman claimed that the Biden administration implemented policies to streamline the asylum process, reduce the immigration case backlog, and a cessation of illegal immigration between ports of entry.
“The Republicans are literally trying to stop the administration from securing the border, while they are saying, and so they can say, that the administration is not securing the border,” said Goldman. “They are creating this situation and then they want to blame President Biden.”
Under the first few weeks of his administration, the country experienced an unprecedented deluge of illegal immigration after Biden reversed most of the border policies from his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
As reported extensively throughout investigations published by the Homeland Security Committee and border agents on the ground, illegal immigrants and cartels have become increasingly emboldened to violate border and trafficking laws. Last week, smugglers assaulted a Border Patrol agent arresting several illegal immigrants.
Since Biden took office, there have been over 7.15 million illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border, and an unknown number of gotaways estimated in total to be around several million.
In the 2023 fiscal year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) arrested over 35,400 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions nationwide, of whom nearly 600 were known gang members. Since the 2021 fiscal year, agents have arrested nearly 300 illegal immigrants on the terrorist watchlist.
The House Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to consider the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas on Tuesday at 8 am. The hearing will be streamed here.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
